Well, where do I start? My brother suffered from depression, and he went to see a psychiatrist and he told him most of his problems stemmed from stuff that happened to me. Because we had always been close, we were more like best friends than brother and sister. Then my mum was suffering from depression too. And she told the doctors what she worried about and it all led back to the past: which was my older brother raping me when I was younger. It hurts so much to see or hear that word, but the truth is, I’ve survived it, I don’t see myself so much as a victim anymore, more of a survivor of a horrible past.

I had a social worker for a short while then was introduced to the Life Centre. At first I was a bit hesitant about coming, but then I found that it really helped me.

It was really hard when I first started seeing the counsellor because I was so used to bottling my feelings up. I was so scared when I first came here, but my counsellor made it easier because I spoke at my own pace. My experience of other counsellors was that they tried to push me into telling them stuff that I wasn’t ready to tell, but my counsellor at Life Centre waited for me, she always made sure I was comfortable with what I talked about and reassured me there was no rush. The sessions that I have had with my counsellor have helped me gain a lot more confidence in myself, and I’ve found new ways of coping with how I feel when I’m down.

I used to have so much anger built up inside of me, but since I’ve had counselling at Life Centre I have learnt how to deal with it and also now I am a lot calmer and see things in different ways. As I am writing this now, I’m reading it out loud, and now I’m not ashamed of being me, I’m proud of how far I’ve come in such a short time. Within about 10 months my whole life has been changed for the better! I’m so thankful for everything my counsellor has done for me!

Client story - 15 year old girl

further reading and resources

read another persons story about their experience of childhood sexual abuse and the subsequent effects of counselling